1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an input device comprising a touch area on an outer surface of a housing of the input device and a tactual cue generating unit for generating tactual cues in the touch area.
2. Description of the Related Art
IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 32, No. 9B, Feb. 1990 discloses a mouse comprising a vibration-inducing unit. The vibration-inducing unit consists of a solenoid and a click plate. Signals from a host computer cause the solenoid to bump against the click plate, which produces a tactual click on an outer surface of the mouse.
Tactual cues are used for conveying information to the user. Tactual cues can be induced in an area on the outer surface of the input device with which the user is normally in contact while manipulating the device, such areas being termed touch areas throughout this text. In case of a mouse, the sides and the back of the housing are candidates for such touch areas. Examples of tactual cues are clicks and vibrations at various frequencies. Tactual cues can, for example, be used to: indicate movement from one window to another in a windows-oriented user interface; indicate crossing into a new cell in a spreadsheet or indicate that an illegal button was pressed. Further applications include game applications and virtual reality applications, in which the tactual cues are used, in addition to visual and auditory information, for making the user""s experience more realistic.
A drawback of the known input device is that the diversity of the tactual cues that can be delivered to the user is limited.
It is an object of the invention to provide an input device as specified in the preamble, with which a larger variety of tactual cues can be generated. To this end, an input device according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises a further touch area on the outer surface and a further tactual cue generating unit for generating further tactual cues primarily in the further touch area, the further tactual cue generating unit being controllable independently of the tactual cue generating unit. With such an input device, different parts of the outer surface of the input device can be made to convey different tactual cues to the user. As a result, a whole range of new effects can be provoked. By having two sources for tactual cues, a kind of tactual stereo can be generated. In a race game application, for example, the user can be made to feel a virtual car hitting a virtual curb, and thereby distinguish between the left curb and the right curb. In general, in game applications and virtual reality applications the user can be given a more three-dimensional experience.
Thus, by independently operating the tactual cue generating units, the tactual cues can convey location or direction information relating to the application. When the input device is used for controlling an indicium on a display, the direction-dependent tactual cues can be used for guiding the user to move the indicium to a particular location on the display, or for indicating that the indicium has crossed or has bumped against a certain object on the display.
It will be understood that tactual cues generated in either touch area propagate to the other touch area due to the rigidity of the construction of the input device. In an embodiment of the present invention is based on the insight that tactual cues can nevertheless be generated primarily in either one of the touch areas and that tactual cues generated primarily in a first touch area are discernible from tactual cues generated primarily in a second touch area.
A measure for enabling the tactual cues to be generated primarily in either one of the touch areas is having the touch areas located in mutually remote parts of the input device. This reduces the amplitude of tactual cues originating from the other touch area. A further measure in accordance with the invention for achieving the same goal is providing the construction of the input device with vibration-attenuation between the touch areas.
An advantageous embodiment of the invention is that input devices to be held in both hands, as described in that claim, lend themselves particularly well for implementing the invention, because they allow the touch areas to be positioned in relatively remote parts of the input device. In another embodiment of the invention a two-hand gamepad and is particularly suited for controlling computer games. By having the tactual-cue generating units, comprising e.g. eccenter motors, being located in different handlebars of the gamepad, the tactual cue generating units are located sufficiently remotely from one another, and the user will be able to discern between tactual cues generated by either one of the tactual cue generating units.
The invention also relates to a method of providing a user of an input device with tactual cues, the method comprising the steps of transmitting a control signal to the input device and generating tactual cues in a touch area on an outer surface of the input device upon reception of the control signal by the input device. The method in accordance with the invention is characterized by generating the tactual cues primarily in the touch- area and by transmitting a further control signal to the input device and upon reception thereof by the input device generating further tactual cues primarily in a further touch area on the outer surface of the input device and independently of generating the first-mentioned tactual cues.
These and other aspects of the invention will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the embodiments described hereinafter.